Slate Digital Trigger Drum Replacer

Slate Digital Trigger Drum Replacer | Reviews
105
that even a small amount of spill can
trigger it? In the past I have found
myself having to edit the trigger to keep
things clean. With Trigger’s Leakage
Suppression tool, that could become a
thing of the past. Instead of inserting
Trigger directly on the track to be
replaced, load it onto a stereo group and
send the track to be replaced to the
left-hand side. Find the sound you want
and set it up so it triggers all the snares.
At certain points in the track the spill
will be triggering it too. Find a
particularly bad passage and send the
individual kick and hat tracks to the
right-hand side of the group.
Adjust the Supp control and the red
parts of the waveform are the
suppressed part of the trigger signal.
Bingo! You’ve lost all those false triggers
without having to lose any dynamic
control of the drum you are replacing.
Layer it up
Having sorted out your triggering issues
the next thing you will want to do is get
on to the sounds. Like the rest of this
plug setting them up and manipulating
them is simple and powerful. In the
Browser, the samples are arranged into
drum type and then each individual
sample set has its own folder within
which you get various versions of the dry
sample, dry with overs and pure
ambience. Some of these are modelled
on the sounds of specific bands such as
AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Nirvana and
the rest are from Steven Slate’s large
collection of wonderful drum samples.
Within each sample there are
multiple dynamic layers and multiple
hits to avoid the ‘machine gun’ effect,
but there are also articulations. These
are variations of the sound that you can
change either from the Articulation
window just below the browser, via MIDI
or automation. For Kicks and Toms
there are two articulations, Full and
Aggressive and for Snares 4, Full,
Rimshot, Soft and Hard. I got great
results from these using automation as
they really help to get as close as
possible to what the drummer intended.
To load the six sample cells you
simply click on one and then double
click the sample you want to place
there. Each individual cell has controls
for level, pitch pan, sustain and release.
You can mix and match samples from
any of the sample sets. Use the dry
from one with the ambience from
another, take a fat snare, detune it and
add a sharp attacking sound to it to give
it a bit more cut.
In the mix
The real test of a device like this comes
when you balance your new drum
sounds into the mix. Of all the drum
replacement plugs I have tried Trigger is
without doubt the best I have used.
There is something
about the way the
sounds sit in the
track that just
makes mixing
simpler. Steven
Slate has put a
huge amount of
effort into recording his sample
libraries. Everything is done to analogue
two-inch using great mics, pres, EQ and
compression. The tonal variations
offered give you an enormous palette.
The plug seems very CPU friendly so
despite all the layering and
manipulation going on, running five or
six instances is easily possible, meaning
you get to hear the whole sound before
committing to it. Last but not least
comes the price. Recording something
of this quality would cost a whole lot
more than £199 so not only is it a killer,
it’s a bargain to boot!
specs
System requirements
PC: Windows XP
(32-/64-bit) / Vista
(32-/64-bit). Windows 7
(32/64-bit). Any Intel or
AMD processor with SSE2
support. 1GB RAM, 2.4GB
disk space
Mac: OS X 10.4 or higher.
Power PC G5 or any Intel
processor. 1GB RAM 2.4GB
disk space
Authorisation: iLok Dongle
Trigger itself lets you pull
in a WAV or AIFF file
straight from the browser
but if you have dynamic
multi-samples and
multiple hits the Trigger
Instrument Editor lets you
turn them into preset
instruments. The browser
window where you locate
the samples, an
articulation window to
define specific
articulations and the main
area where you create the
dynamic sample layers.
At the top of the main
window you define how
many rows and columns
you have. Rows defines
how many vertical
dynamic layers (up to
127) and columns defines
the horizontal ‘round
robin’ number of
multi-samples for each
dynamic layer. Having
located your samples and
defined the number of
sample cells you need you
simply drop into the
relevant cells. If you have
more than one sample for
each dynamic layer, you
drag them all in to the
first cell and the editor
assigns them across the
layer. Once they’re in
place, the AMG preset
pull-down lets you define
what type of samples they
are and then you can
define a new articulation
and repeat the process or,
simply save it.
Build Your Own Drum Sound
There’s something about the way
that the sounds sit in the track that
just makes mixing simpler
VeRDIcT
STABILITY
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VALUE
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EASE OF USE
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VERSATILITY
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RESULTS
❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚❚
Fabulous sounds, excellent
triggering, easy to operate and at a
great price. Highly recommended.
ALTeRNATIVes
Drumagog Platinum
$379
Big and bold with built-in
FX and will even replace a
hi-hat. Currently the
benchmark replacer and
worth checking out.
drumagog.com
SPL Drum Xchanger
149 Euros
Great triggering plug with
small but good drum
library. Has the advantage
of SPL Transient Designer,
built in. Third-party
libraries now available.
soundperformancelab.com
Toontrack
Drumtracker
89 Euros
Standalone software that
allows you to define the
triggers and export them as
MIDI so you can trigger your
favourite drum sampler.
toontrack.com
Trigger’s interface may seem overwhelming but its
layout is very intuitive
FMU237.rev_slate 105 2/1/11 3:02:45 PM